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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Ddd5v f397v as 395]

IUSTA ULTIO.

Just revenge

Emblema 171

A bird on the branch of a tree holding a scorpion in its beak.
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Raptabat volucres captum pede corvus in auras
Scorpion, audaci praemia parta gulae.
Ast ille infuso sensim[1] per membra veneno
Raptorem in stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna. aliis qui fata parabat,
Ipse perit, propriis subcubuitque dolis.[2]

A raven was carrying off into the flying winds a scorpion gripped in its talons, a prize won for its audacious gullet. But the scorpion, injecting its poison drop by drop through the raven’s limbs, despatched the predator to the waters of the Styx and so took its revenge. - What a laughable thing! The one who was preparing death for others himself perishes and has succumbed to his own wiles.

Notes:

1.  Corrected by hand in the Glasgow copy.

2.  This is a fairly free translation of Anthologia graeca 9.339. See Erasmus, Adagia 58, Cornix scorpium, where the Greek epigram is again translated.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Y6v f234v]

Iusta vindicta.

Just recompense

Embleme clxxi.

Cyclops being stabbed in the eye.
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Dum residet Cyclops sinuosi in faucibus antri,
Haec secum teneras concinit inter oves.
Pascite vos herbas. sociis ego pascar Achivis,
Postremumque Utin viscera nostra ferent.
Audiit haec Ithacus, Cyclopaque lumine cassum
Reddidit. en poenas ut suus auctor habet[1]![2]

Sitting in the mouth of his arching cave, the Cyclops sang thus to himself amidst his gentle sheep: Do you feed on grass; I shall feed on the Greek companions, and last of all my belly shall get No-man. The man from Ithaca heard this and made the Cyclops eyeless. See how the one who plotted misfortune collects it himself!

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Y7r f235r]

EX sacris literis didicimus, eum in periculum in-
cidere qui alteri periculum machinetur. Ex hoc
verò emblemate intelligimus magnum in populo ap-
plausum fieri, cùm scelesti illi Reipublicae voratores, &
tyranni nefandissimi pereunt, aut in gravem discri-
men incidunt: quo tempore maximè neminem ha-
bent à quo subleventur, sed plures à quibus ridean-
tur. Historiam hanc petas licet ab Homero Odyssea 9.[3]

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Y7v f235v]

Juste vengeance.

LE geant Polypheme estant sur son rocher,
Comme voulant parler à ses troupeaux & bestes,
Disoit ceste chanson: Petites brebiettes,
Paissez l’herbe bien drue, & moy j’auray la chair
Des Grecs mes prisonniers, & mettray dans ma panse
Utis tout le dernier, ce qu’estant entendu
Par le caut Ulysses, aveugle il l’a rendu.
“Ainsi tombe le mal sur celuy qui mal pense.

NOus avon apprins des lettres sainctes,
que celuy tombe en danger qui à au-
truy procure mal. Mais de cest embleme
nous comprenons, que tout le peuple est
plein de resjouissance quand ces grands man-
geurs de peuples & cruels tyrans meurent,
ou tombent en quelque grand malheur: car
lors ils n’ont personne qui les soulage, mais
au contraire n’y a celuy qui ne s’en moque.
Le narré de cest embleme est dans Home-
re au 9. de l’Odyssee.

Notes:

1.  A proverbial sentiment: cf. Erasmus, Adagia 3091, Di tibi dent tuam mentem.

2.  For the story of Ulysses (the man from Ithaca) in the Cyclops’ cave and his escape by blinding the Cyclops, see Homer, Odyssey 9.177 ff. Ulysses had told the Cyclops his name was No-man. (Utis l. 4).

3.  Corrected from the Errata

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